1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed towards a speaker assembly including one or more speaker structures, each removably attached to a mounting assembly secured to a supporting deck which may be located on the interior of a vehicle or in any other applicable location wherein it is desirable to quickly and frequently remove speakers from their operative position for safekeeping or for installing such speakers at another location for operative use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The existence of speaker assemblies in cooperation with radios, stereo systems, etc. in automobiles or like vehicles has been known for many years. However, modern technology has developed the "stereo system" art to the point wherein hi-fidelity sound is readily available in automobiles or like vehicles as well as in home entertainment centers or the like. When such expensive and high quality systems are available in automobiles or other readily accessible locations, they are more susceptible to theft. The high cost of such systems, including the speakers associated therewith, also makes them more desirable from the standpoint of being stolen. In order to avoid such theft and also to prevent damage to the vehicle itself which would normally occur upon a thief or vandal breaking into the vehicle, it would obviously be desirable to allow the speakers to be "portable" and thereby removable from the vehicle by the owner for safekeeping.
This concept is known already with radios, stereo systems, etc. in order to prevent theft. However, to date, the concept of easily and quickly removing speakers thereby rendering them "portable" in nature while rendering them usable with a high quality sound system is not known. The U.S. Pat. to Litner, No. 4,546,850, discloses removably attached speakers which incorporate the use of a clip type connector or like device. Similarly, Ponticelli, 4,733,748, discloses the incorporation of plastic serrated slides for the removable attachment of a speaker structure to a mounting or support deck or the like. While the above-noted patents generally disclose the broad concept of removably attached speakers, such structures do not facilitate the removal of such speakers to the extent of requiring tools or a certain amount of expertise or knowledge of the structure itself in order to effectively remove the speaker structures form their mounts without damage thereof. Also, the time consumed in removing and reinstalling said speakers is questionable from the standpoint of convenience which would be a necessity for a user to continuously and repeatedly remove said speakers, for safekeeping or for reinstallation at another location, thereby rendering them "portable" in nature.
In addition, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,752,962 to Thiele et al. discloses a loud speaker unit including a frame serving as a sound guide to which a loud speaker chassis having a substantially circular configuration is releasably fastened and further including form locking cooperating detent means which are specifically structured to allow for the mounting and/or installation of the speaker structures by automatic machinery. Again, such a structure is not readily adaptable to overcome the problems of allowing a preferred speaker structure or assembly to be essentially portable.
Accordingly, there is a need in the prior art for a mounting and/or locking mechanism incorporated in one or more speaker structures which affords solid mounting engagement of the speaker on the support deck or mount and a complete and reliable electrical interconnection and standardization of mounting surfaces that is usable with any six inch by nine inch speaker size or any other substantially conventional speaker size and configuration. Such a preferred assembly should be capable of literally thousands of removals/installations without the need for tools or special knowledge of the structure of the assembly so as to facilitate such a removal and installation in a minimum of time and inconvenience to the user or owner of such structures.